coryb27
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Posts posted by coryb27
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Are you using a real duplexer or a mobile pass notch? Some other things to look at, whats the min sensitivity of your receiver? is your lighting arestor suitable for duplex use? can you get your 1/2 line right to the duplexer bypassing any jumpers, arestors etc.. I know of several system in the area that are roughly the same as you have. 3 to 5 miles HT coverage and 10 to 15 mobile is real world around here for a 50' AGL repeater.
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I think you may be expecting to much for 52' AGL. My GMRS Tower is 150' AGL and 232' AAT Running 7/8 Cable, 4 cavity EMR Duplexer and a DB420 antenna at a full 50W. I also use the XPR7550 and have tested full quieting to 12 miles and usable at ground level to 20. Mobile coverage with a 1/4 wave is a solid 35 miles radius around the tower.
My main part 90 UHF site has the RX antenna at 460' with my TX at 150'. I get HT coverage into 3 surrounding counties.
You never said what your mobile coverage is or what your HAAT is. At 52' terrain has a huge impact, you could be dropping 15' in elevation 2 miles away and 20' in 3. If you have a GPS with elevation drive around and see what the land is doing.
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I had a bad experience with the Tytera MD-380 DMR HT's, JUNK! I purchased 16 of them and all of them have had issues, no audio, restarting, no TX, wont power up etc.. I was recycling them thru Amazon and decided to cut my loss.....
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I just want people to see that choosing a condo is not the end of any radio hobby. I have a few more things I plan to put in the attic. I recommend reading any of the owners agreements before installing an antenna farm in your condos attic and if you decided to be quiet and don't tell other residents. The best part is you can remain stealth.
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If you can find an owner that will work with you. If your only options and towers owned by American Tower or Crown Castle, forget it. I had quotes in the $3.75 per foot of height with a 100 foot min. Try to find a locally owned tower or building top. I have some commercial gear on a commercial tower and pay $75 for 150' plus another $30 for internet per month. My GMRS tower was gifted to me on a long term lease for almost nothing. I have full use of the 150' and secure space with power for my gear.
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That looks really slick! I, too, live in a condo and have been thinking about doing the exact same thing. I have a desk upstairs, so I could just pop through the ceiling and into the attic. I was nervous about cutting holes or leaving cables snakes all over the place, but your setup looks super-professional and gives me something to strive for. I can run them through the walls and patch it up, terminating them in wall ports. I like that!
I have the added wrinkle of a big ol' fire sprinkler pipe running through the attic. I think I can get the antennas far enough away that it won't entirely interfere with their pattern... But I have a perhaps-irrational fear that it's going to carry a lot of my RF into the building's fire alarm panel and cause them to go off. Hopefully that's an irrational fear.
I was able to pull all of this off with access to the attic. Home Theater, Computer Network, Wireless Access Points (the flying saucer thing) and cable. I also installed cable, network and power behind the wall mounted TV in each bedroom. I own my place and nothing in the agreement stopped me from doing what I did.
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No issues here, tested with several browsers.
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I also have a dualband Jpole in my attic. Works great.
I really like the switches and server rack. Looks really nice.
That's a pair of Cisco RV325 Routers with Built-in 14-port Gigabit Ethernet switch. I have 2 internet connections at the house, one is my personal 60MB x 10MB and the other is a business class supplied by my employer 20MB x 5MB with 5 IP addresses. The networks are isolated with individual wireless for each. I installed 2 Ubiquity UAP wireless access points that use power over Ethernet, one access point for each network.
- mellowcream and Logan5
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It takes a few days to reach this site. The data here on MYGMRS is pulled from a batch file. Give it 24 hours.
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In several posts I have mentioned my attic antenna's and have promised to elaborate at a latter time, so here goes. Almost a year ago I decided to purchase a condo and with that realized an HOA would now be a fact of life. During my search I fond the perfect place, 2400 sq feet of space, 10' ceilings, and the attic hatch in my walk in closet! We made an offer with the listing agent and it was excepted the the next day! I now had 3 months to remodel and move in, this included home networking and my antennas. My first venture into the attic was a surprise, the amount of space was incredible! I attempted to find some info on attic antennas without much luck, so with my knowledge this is what i decided on. I hope this helps anybody that's been thinking about doing something like this.
My UHF antenna is a DB404-B 450MHz -470 MHz configured for a 5dB elliptical pattern North to South. I took 2 hose clamps and used a deck screw to attach them to the 2x4 support, once tight the antenna is plenty secure for the mild conditions of the attic. As you can see from the photos I used 1/2" Helix for my feed cable. More about that latter. Performance from the dipole is excellent, no measurable SWR using a bird meter and I am able to work repeaters 40 miles away.
I don't talk VHF often but I do have a few people I talk to on MURS and I monitor some other Marine channels as I live close to Lake Michigan. This one is a Browning BR-6051 146-167, not at all impressed with it, it did have a nice mount for use on the 2x4. I am replacing it with a Browning BR-6050, the 6051 was discontinued for a reason..... Again this antenna uses 1/2' Helix.
For my office scanner i decided on a MP Antenna Super-M 25-1300 MHz. This is a simple yet effective wide band scanner antenna. I can not be more pleased with it and most likely will never replace it. I was able to crawl rather high in the attic structure, I am guessing 30' from the ground. I also used 1/2" Helix to maximize the return loss to pull in the weak signals. It is connected to a Uniden BCD996P2 for causal monitoring in the office.
For the last 10 years I have been streaming the local police scanners. It has evolved over the years from a single old base scanner and my computer streaming to a rented shoutcast server to the dual feed system I have in place today. This uses 2 BC355 scanners and a pair of BARIX audio over IP encoders that convert the audio to mp3 format and stream it to a dedicated shoutcast server. The streams can handle 400 listeners total. If you want to know more about that you can check it out at http://racinescanner.com. Because i don't listen to them I tucked them away in my utility room with the rest of the network and video system. These scanners share a common antenna, I am using a Laird Technologies B1443 mobile antenna on a NMO base mount. this feeds into a Telewave AS-1502 power splitter to isolate the receivers. Each scanner has a LMR 195 cable connected to the power splitter at the antenna.
Because I was remodeling and I did purchase the condo I had no reservations for cutting holes in the walls. I figured any holes could be patched and the entire place was getting painted so out came the tools! Remember I said I would get back to the 1/2" Helix, well here yea go. BTW after the drywall repairs you can not see any traces of the 7 access holes i had to cut to run speakers, Cable and Network around the condo. I hope this helps anybody that's been thinking about doing something like this.
I tried to use a 2 gang box but had to change to a 3 gang box, I used Decora blanks and female N bulkheads to make the termination plate.Yes that's my blood on the wall.......
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Motorola Depot service on my XPR7550 was 8 days from the day I dropped it at FedEx till the day I had it back in my hand. A warranty is only as good as the company that stands behind it. If Wouxun continues down this path it will be the death of the company.
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Internet and rent cost me 115 a month for 150' feet, I have 2 locations from a locally owned tower company. I hope to work out a similar deal for a 3rd site this year. You have to try and find a smaller tower operator, places like American Tower and Crown Castle want outrages fees. The owner of the company is a great guy and he even climbs still. I was able to find a few other places well I was looking but decided a small company with 20 plus sites was the best option for expansion of the system.
- Jackel0228 and Logan5
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Oh, how very nice. I wish I had a nice spot like that on a tower that I could afford!
It's not the tower rent that will kill you its the mounts, cable runs and the climber........
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Bill, as you know, there is a huge discussion on this topic over on RR. At least one person has a written inquiry in to the FCC for clarification. I am wondering if the gent at Bridgecom could actually furnish written confirmation from the FCC on this.
What concerns me here is the same reasoning being applied in the RR discussion: Manufacturers submit type acceptance applications for radios and include which parts they want covered. If you look at enough grants, you see that radios are quite often type accepted in several Parts of the rules, and some including Part 95. I have several different Motorola radios here, one is Type Accepted for Parts 90 and 95a, and others are Part 90 only. The transmitter specs that matter for Type Acceptance are all the same in all of the radios, but only one is actually Part 95a. This suggests to me that the manufacturer did not bother to apply for Part 95a and therefore the radio is not Part 95a.
Like others, I am hoping that clarification from the FCC comes through.
The kicker in all of this is that Part 90 now requires 12.5 channel spacing while 95a is still 25. That's an unknown at this time.
My GMRS repeater is a Motorola MTR2000, Part 90 and widely used by HAM's around the world. I welcome the results of the person that has written an inquiry to the FCC for clarification as i am guessing more then 50% of the radios and repeaters in use for GMRS are part 90.
That's just my $0.02
Corey
- Logan5 and mainehazmt
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Ebay's rules and policies greatly favor the buyer. If someone feels they got ripped off, it's likely that they did not follow through with Ebay's procedures for that sort of thing.
I have 6 Motorola mobiles and 5 Motorola portables that I purchased on Ebay. All of them were at least as good as the seller represented them if not much better. But, I did my homework and knew exactly what I was looking for. If the seller doesn't furnish all the info I want to see like model number, serial number, more than one or two pics plus affirmation that the radio works and that the codeplug is not password protected, then I ignore the listing and move on. Fully 75% of satisfaction on purchases on Ebay is the buyer's ability to tell the good from the bad. You can not blame the sellers for all of the problems. Just read some of the negative feedback that buyers try to foist on sellers.
I could not have said this better myself!
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Not GMRS but still UHF radio related and I know several other members own or service licensed part 90 systems. So I thought I would share a few photos from this weekends tower site repair on my business system. Last year I added this site to my Mototrbo IP site connect system, because of costs I cut a few corners and paid the price with an under preforming site. Today's project included installing the new repeater system, replacing the antenna, upgrading from 1/2 to 7/8 feed line and swapping out the 2' standoff for a 4'. Big thanks to my climber, he braved the 29 degree temps and completed the entire project in 4 hours. Yes that's him sitting out on the end of the 4' side arm installing the new antenna. I guess the side arm is now climber tested and approved! Not even with his 50 lbs of safety gear would you catch me sitting out there at 150'. I did some testing on the 50 mile ride home and the site is no longer under preforming. It has exceeded my predictions with15 miles of portable coverage, up from 2 miles.
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Hi all,
Seeing as I have yet to discover another human on the GMRS channels locally, I was wondering - when you broadcast your sign, should it be done with the phonetic alphabet, or can i just say it like it is? Hopefully one day I will reach another living soul, but it's incredibly dead around here as far as i can tell (other than people using the channels to talk to their kids at the ski resorts).
What kind of radio are you using that you dont hear anybody? If you only using a portable your vary limited as to what you are going to hear. Try programing a scanner with all the GMRS channels including the repeater inputs and see if you hear anything. Make sure you do not use any PL or DPL settings when programing your scanner.
Corey
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Corey, thanks for the reply, with my experience with ebay I'd rather build one then trust someone to be honest about what they are selling, I'v had a couple bogas sellers with electrical items, Thanks again Andy WQTQ562
Not sure where you would pickup used radios, controller and duplexer other then eBay. I have been buying and selling on eBay for years, if something was not as listed as a buyer you have lots of protection as long as you conduct the transaction in eBay and use PayPal.
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So far I have not had any issues with the Andrew / Comscope DB line of dipoles. The DB420-B on my GMRS site is over 10 years old and still works as good as day it was put into service. I have herd others complain about some of the DB knockoffs failing in the field but never any bad words about the real deal dipoles.
That is crazy how the antenna separated at the mount, must have been some crazy wind! My issue with past fiberglass was the gelcoat weathering and water soaking into the glass mat causing huge drops in performance. Your would be the first one I have seen sheer off at the mounting tube. Whats the broadcast antenna stack in the background?
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swap 1 made to the Comtelco
as an added side note the VSWR for the Laird was 1.3 and the Comtelco was 1.65.
John,
Ever tried any of the dipoles on your repeater? I run a DB404-B on my base, DB411-B as the TX antenna and a DB413-B as the RX on my commercial UHF DMR system, I am getting ready to upgrade my other commercial site to a Duplexed DB408-B and my GMRS repeater runs a Duplexed DB420-B. I don't have a single bad thing to say about any of them. I do have some choice words about a few of the fiberglass sticks I have used over the years.
Corey
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Sure! A $3000 spectrum analyzer with tracking generator and a VSWR bridge...
Send your rejected ones to me. Your worst is prob better than my best lol
Btw is there a way besides an antenna analyzer to see if an antenna is good? I have an older business band uhf that I have no clue about
Don't want to install it and find out it isn't any good
I would think the cheaper way would be to bolt it to something stable like a metal fence or just stand it up on a mast. Once you find a way to stand it up hook up a radio and an SWR meter and see what you get. How ever you test in be sure it has ample free space and don't get to close to it well keying it up. You may ask around and see if any of your fellow hams have an Anritsu Site Master and if so can you get them to sweep it for you.
Corey
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You can't build one for cheaper then you can find a decent used repeater on eBay. Search UHF Repeater, you need something that will cover the 460.00 MHz spectrum. I saw a Motorola GR1225 ready to go with duplexer for 475.
New Antenna and Feedline for GMRS Repeater
in Technical Discussion
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Installed if you did not see it in my other post.